Twitter owner Elon Musk takes the next step in getting users to subscribe. From April 15, 2023, only tweets from paying subscription customers should appear in the “For you” area, in which the contributions are selected by software. That’s “the only realistic way” to defend yourself against a flood of automated bot accounts, Musk argued on Tuesday night.
The move could reduce the reach of tweets from users without the $8 a month subscription. However, no figures are known on how many posts on Twitter can be displayed by the algorithm instead of the chronological order.
After April 15, only paying subscribers will be able to take part in Twitter surveys. Among other things, Musk had voted on whether he should sell more shares in the electric car manufacturer Tesla he runs or whether the account of ex-President Donald Trump should be unlocked.
In a survey initiated by Musk last year, users also advocated that he should give up the post at Twitter. He promised to follow suit – but later said that the boss search could drag on until the end of this year.
Musk speaks of “verified accounts”, which should be reserved for certain functions. However, the well-known verification tick on Twitter will soon have a different meaning than it used to. Before Musk’s takeover, Twitter awarded the blue icons to celebrities, politicians or journalists after verifying personal information. It meant that the account actually belongs to a specific person or company. These previously assigned ticks should disappear from April 1st, as Musk recently announced.
Instead, only customers of the “Twitter Blue” subscription offer should be allowed to have the same symbols in their accounts as before. After the chaos with fake accounts when the first payment ticks were issued in November, there are higher hurdles for this. For example, an account must be at least 90 days old and the profile photo must not have changed recently. However, according to the rules, personal identification is still not provided for.
Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion last October. After a slump in advertising revenue, he wants to focus more on subscription revenues.
